Belgium says it will not be 'scapegoat' over Gérard Dépardieu

Belgium today on Monday said it would not become a "scapegoat" for Gérard Dépardieu's decision to hand in his French passport, as the row over the actor's cross-border tax exile took a diplomatic turn.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Sunday, Mr Depardieu slammed the French prime minister for branding him "pathetic" despite the 145 million euros in taxes he has paid in his 45-year career.

"We no longer have the same country. I'm a true European, a citizen of the world," he wrote in the letter.

"I am leaving because you believe that success, creation, talent, anything different must be sanctioned," he said.

Mr Ayrault responded on Monday by saying: "I didn't brand Mr Depardieu pathetic, I said there was a pathetic side (about seeking tax residence in Belgium)." He added: "I also said that Gérard Depardieu was a great artist, loved by the French in that respect."

The actor's decision to move to Néchin, a Belgian village barely a mile across the border from Lille in northern France has sparked stinging criticism from the Left.

Radical Left parliamentary leader Roger-Gérard Schwartzenberg on Monday suggested the star should be stripped of his Légion d'Honneur as he had acted dishonourably.

Socialist party heavyweight Claude Bartolone added that Mr Depardieu had taken full advantage of France's highly subsidised film industry. His success was at least in part thanks to "what we (the French state) have fiscally put on the table to allow French cinema to be what it is today," he said.

But Pierre Lelouche, the film director, called for an end to what he dubbed the "shameful lynching" of Mr Depardieu.

Meanwhile the French Right accused Socialist President François Hollande of "running France into the ground" with tax hikes that Mr Depardieu wishes to avoid. These include a 75 per cent tax on millionaire earners.

Unlike France, Belgium does not impose a wealth tax and its income and inheritance taxes are also lower.

Jean-François Copé, leader of the UMP party, said that Mr Hollande was destroying the country.

"What I regret above all is how the Socialist government is running the country into the ground," Mr Copé said on Monday, denouncing the "tax bludgeoning which is hitting all French citizens."